Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

Mullen: Striking Iran should be last resort

America’s highest-ranking military official says U.S. officials must remain mindful of the damage that could be wrought if Washington ignites a third hot war in the Middle East by striking Iran, but he added that military options “cannot be taken off the table.”

Hours after Washington announced a new package of sanctions against Iran in the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions Thursday, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said “the diplomatic approach is a very important one.”

For leaders in Washington, it is important they avoid ruling out eventually using military strikes to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. But, he said to a gathering at a Center for a New American Security-sponsored forum in Washington, military action against Iran should be considered “a last option.”

Eventually using military force cannot be ruled out because of Iran’s support for terrorist and extremist groups and Washington’s charges that Tehran is helping mount attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, he said. Those alleged Iranian-backed attacks “are now spreading to Afghanistan,” Mullen said.

Even still, Mullen warned, “we have to be mindful of the risks that would [be spawned] by engaging in a third conflict” in the region.

Right now, he said, the focus should be on “bringing together the international community to a solution that is constructive, not destructive. ... Whatever pressure can be used, should be — diplomatic, financial, whatever.”

Additionally, a decline in defense spending, which some experts are predicting after the Iraq conflict ends, would prohibit military officials from re-setting the force and shaping it to fight future foes, the newly minted chief said.

“Right now, we’re spending about 4 percent of our [gross domestic product] on defense,” Mullen noted, adding the military likely would be unable to tackle all its future challenges “with less money.”

Mullen said during his time as Joint Chiefs chairman he will attempt to “balance” the entire American fighting force instead of tailoring it for a single kind of conflict, such as conventional or irregular warfare.

Further, Mullen said Washington must do a better job of developing an array of tools that can help deter existing and future foes. At several points during his remarks at the CNAS forum, Mullen talked vaguely about enhancing the military’s deterrence capabilities and of an expectation U.S. forces in the future will be needed “to do dissuasion kinds of things.”

The four-star also said one lesson he has gleaned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is some federal agencies like USAID “that got much smaller in the last 10 or 15 years ... are going to have to get larger.”